One last chance
by Jasu94
Summary: Cas is dead and Dean destroyed. But then, a Higher Power decides that they deserve one last chance. If only Dean says the right words. Destiel. Fluff, I guess. Character-Death, but he gets resurected. Rating for Dean's language and blood.


**Pairing: **Destiel  
**Spoilers: **set after mid-season 8, but no spoilers  
**Warnings: **Character-Death, but he gets resurected  
**AN: **Apparently, a lot of people on tumblr have this head canon about Cas dying in Dean's arms and well, I wrote a fic for that.

"That's it." Dean declared and dropped his bag in the middle of yet another motel room. Sam, following him through the door, almost fell over it.  
"Dude. Don't leave your stuff in the way of everyone!"

Dean turned around, both hands busy unbuttoning his shirt.  
"Sam, I don't care if you can't control your awfully long limbs. I am tired – all I want is to lie down, get some sleep and make sure nothing is touching my chest, because it freaking hurts."

"Really, is it still so bad?" Sam asked, honest care swinging along in his voice.

"Yes, it is. 's worse than ever since this morning." Dean answered, fighting to get his boots off. He let himself fall backwards onto the bed, arms and legs stretched out.  
"Ahh… wonderful. That freaking shirt made it itch so badly." was the last thing he said before falling asleep almost promptly.

Sam just shook his head, but decided to let his brother rest. He grabbed a random book out of his duffle, dropped down onto the second bed and started reading. But as interesting as the book was, Latin wasn't Sam's strongest language – especially not at seven in the evening after a long day of hunting.

After he had re-read the same paragraph five times, he gave up completely andled his head fall back onto the headboard. Dean groaned in his sleep, which caused Sam to look over to him. His brother looked tired and worn out, even in sleep. He was paler than usual, a little thinner, too and there were dark circles under his eyes. And, of course, there was the scar.

Its center laid a little left of Dean's breast bone and from there, large wings spread out, burned into the flesh. On his left shoulder, a couple of feathers almost touched the handprint, as if to remind everyone that those two scars together outlined both beginning and end of a wonderful friendship.

Dean didn't like to talk about what they both only referred to as "The Incident", so Sam had likewise pushed it very far to the back of his head. Observing the scar, however, brought the memory back.

_A monster none of them could name, stronger than anything they usually confront, which neither angle blade nor silver bullet nor fire could hurt._

_Cas, ever willing to make sacrifices, throwing himself in front of the Winchester brothers, catching the beast in full jump._

Large teeth – poisonous, as they should later find out – sinking into the angel's flesh.

_A scream, bursting all the remaining windows of the old factory and making Dean's and Sam's ears bleed._

_The monster, apparently having satisfied its blood thirst, disappearing into thin air. Almost simultaneously, Dean rushing forward and cradling the angel into his arms._

_Cas, their Cas, their angel, soaking Dean with his blood, dying in his arms, not even able to whisper any last words._

_Large black marks, mere shadows of beautiful and magnificent wings, scorching into the surface beneath them. Which just happened to partially be Dean's skin._

_The dead body of the angel disappearing a minute after he had closed his eyes and Dean crying out in pain and sorrow._

Sam sighed in memory and had to fight back tears. It seemed so unfair. Not only Cas' death, also that they didn't even had a chance to bury him. Dean refused to treat his wounds in any way, letting them purposefully scar worse than they maybe had to.

He hadn't let Sam near him until almost three months after, when they finally talked about it. They had both cried a lot that night and conceived a plan to find that monster and revenge Cas' death. So far, they hadn't managed it, but they were following a strong lead.

A knocking on the door ripped Sam from his thoughts. He frowned – neither of them expected any company. Cautiously, he grabbed his gun and then went to open the door. The sight greeting him took his breath away.

Before he could say anything, the person on the other side of the doorstep smiled widely.  
"Excuse the intrusion, Sir. But … I was wondering … do you know anybody with a large scar on their chest?" The man gestured in front of his own body, which was clad in a way to familiar suit and trench coat.

Sam was speechless. He slowly counted to ten in his head, and then answered as friendly and less freaked out as he could.  
"Sure. Would you please wait just a second?"  
"That would be no problem at all, I am sorry to disturb."

Sam closed the door and took one big leap to Dean's bedside.  
"Dean." he half-whispered, half-screamed.  
"Sammy … Le'me sleep."

"Dean. Wake up. I think either … Cas is back or there is a demon outside."

The mentioning of the angel's name seemed to immediately wake Dean up.  
"What?" he gasped and wanted to get up, but Sam held him back.

"There is a guy outside. He looks, sounds and talks like Cas and he was asking for someone with a large scar on his chest. Obviously, he didn't seem to know me. Either this is some kind of demon taking his … or Jimmy's body or … Cas is back, but something is very wrong."

Dean looked up into Sam's eyes, begging him for honesty with his own gaze. "No jokes, Sam. Please, that would be a bad prank to play."  
"Dean, I am not joking. Don't you think I miss him, too?"

A second knock on the door interrupted them.  
"Excuse me; you seem to have forgotten me. I am sorry to disturb you, really."  
Dean's eyes almost watered up.  
"Holy shit, he really _does_ sound like Cas."

"So what are we going to do?" Sam asked.  
"Get a bottle of holy water, let him in and splash it onto him. If we can convince him, we will also cut him with a silver knife. If he is real and not possessed, we will talk to him."

It was not the nicest way to treat guests, but the man didn't seem to mind being splashed with water upon him stepping over the door still. He looked a little confused, though, which was strange, since Dean was sure that Cas would be familiar with this practice.

After some dubious explanation from Sam, he even agreed to be given a small cut into his arm with a silver knife. Nothing happened, though.

"Okay. So you are not a demon. Cas, can you…" Dean started, but the Cas-look-alike interrupted him.  
"Cas? Is that my name?"  
"Yes." Sam said, sitting down on the bed. He felt a little dizzy – this was not any more confusing than most of their other cases, but it was something different when concerning their friend.

"What exactly do you remember? Why are you here?" Dean asked, standing still shirtless in the middle of the room, staring at "Cas".

"I remember waking up this morning in a small forest. I don't have any knowledge other than two pictures that kept reappearing in my mind over and over again. A long black car with a Kansas license plate. And a man's chest, covered in a huge burned scar.

"I wandered around until I reached a road, which I followed until I arrived here. The car from my memory was parked in front of this room, so I figured maybe you could help me out."  
"Cas. We don't know what has happened to you. For all we know, you are dead. You … were murdered four months ago, almost a thousand miles from here." Sam tried to explain.

"So, wait. You say that you don't remember anything but my baby, my Impala," Dean pointed out of the window "and a scar burned onto a male chest."

"Yes. A scar strangely resembling wings. Like yours. I am actually pretty sure it was yours."

He stretched his hand out as if he wanted to touch Dean's burned skin and took a couple of hesitant steps forward. Halfway between the door and Dean, however, he stumbled over Dean's bag which was still lying there and fell forward.

Out of instinct and with a movement both brothers painfully remembered from The Incident, Dean lurked forward to catch Cas in his fall. When they were both standing on their feet again, Cas' hands were still splayed across Dean's chest from his attempt to stabilize himself. He looked up, a puzzled expression on his face.

"Dean." he simply said. The man looked at him, confused.  
"I never told you my name. How do you …?"  
"I remember. I remember now." Cas cheered, freeing himself from Dean's grip onto his arms and turned to address both brothers.

"I am Castiel and I was an angel of the Lord. You two are Samuel and Dean Winchester, hunters of supernatural things, in the third generation. We used to hunt together and on our last case, a very old and very powerful creature attacked and killed me. I remember dying, but I also remember waking up in the presence of God and being given one last chance. One last life on earth."

"_One_ last life? And you _were_ an angel?" Dean interrupted.

"Yes, Dean. I am mortal now. Human. As vulnerable as you and Sam." he presented them his arm: The cut Sam had made earlier was still visible and bleeding slightly, something which would have never happened to an angel.

Dean still looked suspicious, but it all made sense to Sam.  
"That is why your body disappeared. Because you died, but … God pulled your body into heaven to give it back to you. That also explains why Dean's scar has been hurting all day long – you were back on earth and … I don't know, there must be some kind of connection. And you didn't remember anything, because you were human now and your old life was behind you. But the contact with the scar _your_ wings left revised that. It is not uncommon that bodily contact restores lost memories. "

Dean took a step closer to Cas, Sam could see trust in his eyes now.

"Yeah, but two things still don't make sense. Why would He send you back, give you another life? And why did He drop you off so close to the two of us and with nothing but two pictured clues that would lead you to us?"

Cas smiled at Dean, care shining in his eyes.  
"I think you very well know this. Father has told me you prayed to him every day since my death, begging him to give me back to you, asking him to have mercy and to be less cruel. He didn't plan on giving me the gift of life again until two nights ago, when you used … the magic word."

"What, you prayed for four months and never once said 'please'?" asked Sam, disbelieve in his voice.

"No, Sam. It was a different word. Father told me. He searched for me among the souls of heaven and told me about your prayers. And then he said he would give both of us one last chance, because we have proven worthy of it. All I had to do was say the same word."

"Which word?" Sam interrupted, but Dean and Cas, staring at each other like so many times before, didn't seem to hear him.  
"Dean? I will only ask you to say this once. But could you please … I need to hear it with my own ears." There was a pause, Dean cleared his throat and tried to tune down his blush a little. Then:

"Love. I prayed to God to get you back, because … Cas, I love you." The former angel grinned and Sam gasped.  
"So, God send Cas back to earth as human so you could live a life together, and all he had to do was to say…"  
"I love Dean Winchester. Really, I love you."

Dean took another step forward, almost closing the gap between him and Cas.

"Sammy." he commanded "Sam, get those fifty bucks out of my bag, grab your stuff and get yourself a motel room of you own. I don't want to see you again before tomorrow … around noon."

As soon as his brother had left the room, Dean pushed Cas into the nearest wall.  
"So, you are fully human now?" Cas only nodded as Dean felt for his pulse.

"Indeed. Well, if we have only one chance at this, I will have to be very careful you don't get hurt."

"I don't think your lips would cause any harm." Cas whispered, a sly smile playing around his mouth.

Dean closed the gap between their lips and … holy crap … Cas' lips were so soft under his own. Wet and warm they lay under his curious tongue, but Cas wasn't moving. Carefully, Dean took Cas' hands and placed them on his waist, were the soft fingers instantly curled and explored his skin.

He moved his lips a little, so that his bottom lip fell between Cas' and then he gave the former angel's arm an affectionate squeeze. Cas tentatively opened his mouth and caught Dean's lips in hit, nipping at it with his own.

Dean felt the heartbeat against his skin speed up as one of Cas' hands moved up and cupped his flushed-red cheek. Now taking control, Cas traced Dean's lips with his tongue and he allowed the hunter to step even closer, pressing his steady body against his own, trembling one.

Only having been fully human since about thirteen hours, Cas forgot that he needed to breathe. He broke the kiss, coming up for air and met Dean's grin when he opened his eyes. Their breath mingled between them as Dean laid their foreheads together, putting his arms to rest on Cas' shoulders.

"Will you stay with me?" he asked shyly.  
"Of course, Dean. It was basically God's order for us to get together."

"So you will go on hunts with us?"  
Cas nodded.

"Okay. Then we will need to get you tattooed." Dean said, pressing a kiss onto Cas' suit jacket over the place where the anti-possession tattoo would be.

"And you will need a few more clothes" Another kiss, this time on the chin.  
"Oh. And I _will_ need to teach you how to shave." Giggling from Cas, a kiss on the cheek from Dean.

"A few lessons in hand-to-hand combat might not be so bad, either. Hmm, I will leave that to Sam." Dean plucked Cas's hands off his body and kissed each palm.  
"What else … Oh, of course, _I_ will enjoy teaching you a lot about sex, my little virgin." Both giggled and a deep red blush appeared on Cas' cheeks.

"And …"  
"Hey Dean." Cas interrupted.  
"Yeah?"

The former angel carefully traced the scars on Dean's chest, electing a shiver from the hunter. "Does it hurt?"

Dean shook his head and Cas continued his exploration. "I am so sorry about this."

"Don't be." Dean whispered, his voice close to breaking. "You saved my life, throwing yourself in front of us. Please, don't be sorry. The scar … it helped me, in some way. It showed me every day what I had lost and reminded me of how much I cared about you. It caused me to pray."

"I think it is beautiful. You are beautiful with it."

"Shut up." Dean breathed and quickly busied Cas' lips with something other than talking. But Cas seemed to have other plans.  
"Dean, you forgot about two things that being human causes."  
"Yeah? What would that be?"

"I am hungry. And tired. And both feel very strange."


End file.
